USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ACCESS AND SUPPORT INFORMAL LEARNING IN MUSEUMS OF TAIWAN AND THE U.S.
Open Access
- Author:
- Lee, Pei Wei
- Graduate Program:
- Lifelong Learning and Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 20, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Ladislaus M. Semali, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Ladislaus M. Semali, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Adnan Qayyum, Committee Member
Wei-Fan Chen, Committee Member
Roger Shouse, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Informal Learning
Social Media - Abstract:
- Since many museums identify education as their core mission, they provide many educational programs to inform their visitors. With the advancement of technology and social change, museums have an opportunity and a challenge to provide adult and lifelong learners an environment for developing communities of interest, engagement, and identity within and beyond museum walls (Falk & Dierking, 2000; Lahav, 2004; Kelly, 2010; 2011). As a result, museums take a visitor-centered approach to develop digital resources for museum visitors online and in-house (Marty, 2008). This study examined in what ways museum Facebook users interact with each other and whether users generate learning experiences through interacting online. Through online ethnographic research, known as netnography (Kozinets, 2010), this qualitative approach studied online communities and cultures. Quantitative data were collected to measure and identify user characteristics, behaviors and types of Facebook postings. The intangible and human side of data (Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Namey & Guest, 2005) in terms of strategies, engagement and interactions were analyzed as well. For example, findings from Facebook “Walls” were categorized to identify emerging themes for interpretation. Moreover, this study investigated the phenomenon of interaction in two major museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the U.S. and the National Palace Museum in Taiwan to explore similarities and differences in how museum visitors engage in learning in two culturally different museums. This study examined the practices of knowledge creation and learning occurred in online communities. Content analysis and frame analysis (Kidd, 2011) were used to find seven themes regarding user interaction and engagement; (1) User as Consumers and Producers (2) Reaching a Diverse of International Audience (3) Positive and Negative Feedback (4) Affective Expression of Past Experience (5) Planning for a Future Trip (6) Referring to Friends with Interests and (7) Using Evaluation and Affective Expression. In addition, this study also found traits of knowledge construction and participatory learning. Activities demonstrated on Facebook identified users’ engagement in knowledge creation and learning through commenting and dialoguing within the online communities. The outcomes revealed the growing number of online museum fans and identified emerging needs museums have to consider. This study will be useful to museum professionals in gaining an understanding to supporting learning environments with innovative tools. Future avenues of research are presented to address the issues of social media and informal learning